Young adult

Let's Never Speak of This Again by Megan Williams

Reviewed by Aurelia Orr

Megan Williams’ debut novel, which won the 2022 Text Prize, is an authentic, gorgeously written story about friendship, teen angst, grief, and discovering one’s identity and independence.

Abby’s life is good. No, she may not be popular, and her best…

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Goddess Crown by Shade Lapite

Reviewed by Nishtha Banavalikar

Goddess Crown is a fantasy debut featuring lush imagery, immersive language, worldbuilding, and a captivating, fast-paced plot. A distant goddess rules the Kingdom of Galla, her teachings long since warped and appropriated by a kingdom of four regions. The southern…

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Eleanor Jones Is Not a Murderer by Amy Doak

Reviewed by Alicia Guiney

A fast-paced murder mystery, Eleanor Jones Is Not a Murderer takes the YA murder-mystery genre and humanises it, placing friendship and self-discovery at its core.

Eleanor Jones has spent her whole life moving from town to town. As a result…

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The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain by Cath Crowley

Reviewed by Lucie Dess

Gracie is a soccer superstar, and she knows it. She never misses a goal and she’s on her way to get everything she’s ever wanted. The team is going to the national championships, her dream guy has started noticing her…

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The Spider and Her Demons by sydney khoo

Reviewed by Tracy Hwang

When 15-year-old Zhi Leong Yao accidentally kills and eats a man in front of the most popular girl in school, her already precarious life as a half-human, half-spider-demon starts to splinter. What follows is a rollicking but down-to-earth urban fantasy…

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Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington

Reviewed by Nishtha Banavalikar

Edgewater is a high school occupied exclusively by the rich and powerful. When Adina Walker, a Black middle-class daughter to two Edgewater professors, works her entire life to get a Yale acceptance, it upsets one of her classmates, spurring a…

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One Song by A.J. Betts

Reviewed by Angela Crocombe

Eva Sidebottom, a 17-year-old musician, wants more than anything to win the Triple J Unearthed High competition before she finishes high school. She’s entered plenty of times before, but this weekend is her very last chance. She assembles a motley…

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Sing Me to Sleep by Gabi Burton

Reviewed by Clodagh Robinson-Watts

Sarah J. Maas and Kate Murray fans, get ready for a new femme fatale on the dark, dystopian fantasy scene!

In Keirdre, a city cut off from the rest of the world to segregate fae from other species, Saoirse must…

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Very Bad People by Kit Frick

Reviewed by Angela Crocombe

There are a number of bad people in this pacey, dark thriller set in the world of academia. The fun is undoubtedly figuring out who the bad people are in the cast of potential suspects.

Calliope is escaping from the…

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We Didn’t Think It Through by Gary Lonesborough

Reviewed by Alicia Guiney

This novel contains an incredibly powerful narrative about injustice, family, and hope. It is deeply human and is written in a way that both exposes what is wrong in our world and highlights what is good. Sixteen-year-old Jamie Langton is…

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